Mr. Charles Winfield determined to do his share by pointing out to the woman that Bret had no income and would have none. This would scare the creature away, for she was undoubtedly after the boy’s money. What else could she want? If worst came to worst, they might even buy her off. A few thousand dollars would be a cheap blackmail to pay for the release of their son.
The train that carried the elder Winfields to the ordeal of meeting with the threatening invader of their family was due in New York in the forenoon.
When Charles Winfield bought a paper to glance over it during his dining-car breakfast he was pleased to find a brief mention of the meeting of the directors. His own name was included in small type, with the initials wrong. Still, it was pleasant to be named in a New York paper.
As he turned the page he was startled to see a familiar face pop up before him as if with a cheerful “Good morning!” He studied it. It was familiar, but he could not place it. He read the name beneath—“Sheila Kemble”!
It was a large portrait and the text accompanying it was an adroit piece of press-agency. Reben’s publicity man, Starr Coleman, had smuggled past the dramatic editor’s jealous guard a convincing piece of fiction purporting to describe Sheila’s opinions on woman suffrage as it would affect the home. He had been unable to get at Sheila during rehearsals and he had concocted the interview out of his own head.
Winfield passed the paper across to his wife. Both were decidedly shaken. Winfield’s logical mind automatically worked out a problem in ratio. If he himself felt important because a New York newspaper included his name in a list of arrivals, how important was Sheila, who received half a column of quotation and a photograph?
Furthermore, Sheila’s name was coupled with that of a prominent woman whose social distinction was nation-wide.
Mrs. Winfield fetched forth her spectacles, read Sheila’s dictum carefully and with some awe. There were two or three words in it that Mrs. Winfield could not understand—neither could Sheila when she read it. Starr Coleman liked big words. But in any case the interview scared Mrs. Winfield out of her scheme to play the missionary. By the same token Mr. Winfield decided not to offer Sheila a bribe.
Their plans were in complete disarray when they reached New York.